Examples of Winston Churchill's work as a war correspondent | The British Newspaper Archive Blog Examples of Winston Churchill’s work as a war correspondent Posted on October 13th, 2014 by The British Newspaper Archive Simon Read is currently using The British Newspaper Archive to research Winston Churchill’s adventures as a war correspondent. He got in touch to show us some examples of Churchill’s journalism. ************** Hear the name Winston Churchill, and what comes to mind? Most likely, it’s Churchill the war leader with his ever-present cigar, bulldog scowl, and never-surrender spirit. But long before Churchill’s Finest Hour, there was Winston Churchill the young adventurer. Between 1895 and 1900, Churchill covered wars of empire in Cuba, India’s North-West Frontier, the Sudan, and South Africa as a correspondent for several London newspapers. Churchill’s journalism and The British Newspaper Archive I’m currently writing a book on this aspect of Churchill’s life and am putting The British Newspaper Archive to great use. Churchill’s dispatches are vivid, graphic, and make for compelling reading. Although he published some of his articles in book form, I wanted to rely on his reports as they originally appeared.

There is something to be said for doing research in the comfort of your own home, printing documents the moment you need them, and not having to scroll through endless reels of microfilm. The British Newspaper Archive has been a great treasure trove of information. Winston Churchill at the Battle of Omdurman As a war correspondent for the Morning Post in 1898, Churchill was attached to General Kitchener’s army and followed the Anglo-Egyptian re-conquest of the Sudan. At the Battle of Omdurman, Churchill was commissioned with the 21st Lancers and took part in an epic cavalry charge against several thousand enemy Dervish. We can see exactly how he described it in this report, printed in the Morning Post on 29 September 1898: Morning Post – Thursday 29 September 1898 Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View the whole newspaper page Equally vivid is his detailing of the bloody aftermath, which appeared in the Morning Post on 6 October 1898: Morning Post – Thursday 06 October 1898 Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Churchill’s report from the Battle of Spion Kop In 1899, Churchill was again reporting for the Morning Post, this time from the South African battlefields of the Second Boer War. It was here he made an international name for himself after being captured and then escaping from an enemy Prisoner of War camp. In January 1900, he was present at the disastrous Battle of Spion Kop. This article was published in the Morning Post on 17 February 1900. It’s yet another example of his gripping journalism: Morning Post – Saturday 17 February 1900 Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View the whole newspaper page Churchill’s exploits rival those of Indiana Jones – and The British Newspaper Archive is allowing these early adventures to come to life once more on the page. ************** Simon Read has published several non-fiction books, including Human Game: Hunting the Great Escape Murderers and The Case That Foiled Fabian: Murder and Witchcraft in Rural England. Visit Simon’s website to find out more.

Photo of Winston Churchill on horseback after daring Boer War prison camp escape up for auction | Daily Mail Online comments A previously unseen photograph of Winston Churchill on a horse following his daring escape from a prison camp during the Boer War has emerged for sale. Sitting astride his grey mount in 1899, the 26-year-old future Prime Minister is shown wearing a suit and tie and has on a wide-brimmed hat. He has a notably slim figure after his 'sixty hours of misery' trying to find his way back to British lines. He had gone to South Africa in 1898 as a newspaper war correspondent and was captured in November the following year. Winston Churchill after his Boer War prison camp escape: Sitting astride his grey mount in 1899, the 26-year-old future Prime Minister is shown wearing a suit and tie and has on a wide-brimmed hat in this never-before-seen photograph The back of the photo reads 'Winston Churchill after escape'.

The photo has been put up for sale by the descendants of Arthur Knight, a trained photographer who was the son of pioneer diamond miner William Knight He was part of a scouting expedition on an armoured train when it was attacked by the enemy. Churchill's heroics during the ambush led to speculation that he would receive the Victoria Cross, although this never happened. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share He was taken to a prison camp in Pretoria but a month later he made his escape and travelled 300 miles to safety. He became a national hero, but it was not enough for Churchill who then joined the army and helped relieve the British at the Siege of Ladysmith and then take Pretoria. Winston Churchill (right) with other captured British soldiers during the Boer War This vintage photograph is not recognised by any experts in the field and is expected to make hundreds of pounds when it goes under the hammer at auction. It has been consigned for sale by the descendants of Arthur Knight, a trained photographer who was the son of pioneer diamond miner William Knight.

YOUNG WINSTON AND THE £25 PRICE ON HIS HEAD Enlarge When Churchill escaped from the PoW camp, a wanted poster was issued, offering £25 for the young war correspondent's recapture. The Boer authorities distributed a description of him, noting that he could not speak a word of Dutch. Despite this, he made it to safety. Boer commander PJ Joubert, who had imprisoned Churchill two months earlier, said: 'He is just n'klein koerant-skrywertjie' - 'he's just a little newspaper man'. Soon after gaining his freedom, Churchill joined the South African Light Horse, an irregular cavalry unit which fought his former captors. For the next few months, he stayed on in South Africa as a soldier/correspondent, thrilling readers with his reportage and slow march to victory. Arthur trained as a photographer with David Barnett of Johannesburg and it is likely that this shot of Churchill was taken either by Barnett or by Arthur Knight himself. It shows Churchill surrounded by men of The South African Light Horse Regiment and on the back of the photo it says 'Winston Churchill after Escape'.

Andrew Marlborough, from Duke's of Dorchester in Dorset, which is selling the picture, said: 'This could be a major find. 'Our research so far suggests that this is an unrecorded photo. It shows him astride his grey horse surrounded by troops. 'The troops are from the South African Light Horse Regiment, which was who Churchill was with in his role as a newspaper correspondent. 'This could be taken very shortly after his escape and is a really exciting find. 'It has come from the direct descendant of Arthur Knight, who was the son of William Knight a diamond mining pioneer and the founder of Johannesburg. 'Arthur Knight trained as a photographer with David Barnett who took many official photographs of the war. 'This photograph is likely to have been taken by Arthur Knight or David Barnett and is part of a large archive from the same source. 'These include images of Lord Kitchener, General Christiaan De Wet, President Paul Kruger, as well as views on London and Brighton in the late 19th and early 20th century.' During the second Boer War that started in October 1899 between Britain the the Boer Republics, Churchill obtained a commission to act as a war correspondent.

He had recently failed to be elected to the house of commons and went to South Africa to report for the Morning Post on £250 a month. In a dispatch, Churchill told of his escape and wrote: 'I therefore resolved to escape, and the same night I left the State School's prison, in Pretoria by climbing the wall when the sentries' backs were turned momentarily.' He told how he walked through the town 'without disguise' and met many 'burghers' then managed to board a train and hid under coal sacks. He then told how he jumped from the train and followed the railway by night, avoiding bridges and crossings. He boarded another train and despite it being searched by Boers he avoided detection. He concluded: 'After sixty hours of misery I came safely here. I am very weak, but am free. 'I have lost many pounds in weight, but am light in heart.' The sale is on April 12.

Shortly after arriving, Churchill joined a scouting expedition in an armoured train, leading to his capture and imprisonment in a PoW camp in Pretoria, but he escaped and wrote about his exploits for the Morning Post The elder statesman, in his trademark hat and smoking a cigar, on the occasion of his 85th birthday in 1959 The Boer Wars - Personalities - Second Boer War - Sir Winston Churchill Sir Winston Churchill Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) The English statesman Sir Winston Churchill successfully led Britain through World War Two. He described this achievement as his 'walk with destiny' - a destiny for which he believed he had spent all his life in preparation. He was born son of a prominent Tory politician, Lord Randolph Churchill, at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, and attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, before embarking on an army career. He saw action in 1897 with the Malakand field force, which he described in The Story of the Malakand Field Force, and also in 1898, with a Nile expeditionary force, when he famously fought hand-to-hand against the Dervishes.

During the Boer war he was ambushed while reporting for a London paper, The Morning Post, but he escaped - and a price of £25.00 was put on his head. His political career began in 1900, when he became Conservative MP for Oldham, a seat that he had previously failed to win. When he became disaffected with his party he migrated to join the Liberals in 1906. His presence in the House of Commons was notable, marked particularly by his rehearsed rhetorical method (meticulously prepared) - and this was despite a speech impediment, which never left him. Although he styled himself on his father, his concerns were somewhat different. He was an arbitrator who fought for peace in the Boer war, and he believed in effective military management and in modesty of ambition. In 1917 he was appointed Lloyd George's minister of munitions, and was involved in the mass production of tanks, believed to have played a large part in Britain's subsequent victory in World War One. Then from 1919 to 1921 he acted as secretary of state for war and air, and in 1924 he became chancellor of the exchequer.

The next decade saw a decline in his status, as political turmoil prevailed. But when war loomed in May 1940, and Neville Chamberlain lost power, Churchill came into his own - face-to-face with his 'destiny'. His national spirit and unflinching determination in the face of Germany and Italy's warmongering won massive support across the country. Even though he promised nothing more than 'blood, toil, tears and sweat', he mobilised and inspired courage in an entire nation. Throughout the war he worked tirelessly, and built good relations with President Roosevelt at the same time as maintaining an alliance with the Soviet Union. Churchill, however, was regarded with suspicion by some, for his ability to change parties at regular intervals. Many trade union members, and sections of the working class also hated him, as he was instrumental in helping to break the 1926 General Strike. After the war, even though he was seen as a great leader who had not given an inch to the enemy, he was not considered necessarily to be the man to establish a better Britain during peacetime.

Suspicions and doubts about him may have been compounded by his delay in the implementation of the Beveridge Report, which outlined plans for a national health service. Even though Churchill lost power in the 1945 post-war election, he remained a vital leader of the opposition, voicing apprehensions about the Iron Curtain and encouraging European and Atlantic unity, finally conceived as NATO. A final stint as Prime Minister came at the age of 77, and Churchill continued as a backbencher into even older age. His contribution was rewarded with a string of decorations, including an honorary US citizenship and accolades listing him among the greatest living Englishmen. As well as his many political achievements, he left the legacy of an impressive number of publications. Churchill captured in South Africa Winston Churchill arrived in Estcourt in Natal in 1899 at the age of 25. He came to report on the Anglo Boer War for the London Morning Post. The British troops were waiting to march on Ladysmith. Churchill later described Ladysmith as "the poor little persecuted town – famous to the uttermost ends of the earth".

In November of that year Churchill joined an armoured train reconnaissance heading towards Colenso North where Boer patrols had been spotted. Boers just north of Frere in Natal ambushed the train. A huge stone had blocked the line. When the train hit it, it was derailed. General PJ Joubert decided that Churchill had played too active a role in the skirmish. So he was taken to Pretoria (near Johannesburg) to be imprisoned. Churchill did not stay captive for long, however. Within two months he had escaped and stowed away on a coal train heading east in the direction of Mozambique. The following evening the train stopped at Clewer siding near Witbank (the Transvaal Highveld). Churchill decided to knock on some doors in search of food. Fortune definitely favors the brave for the door he chose to knock on was that of John Howard. He was an Englishman and manager of the Transvaal and Delagoa Bay Colliery. Churchill was fed well and later hidden in the underground stables of the mine. The Boer forces were searching high and low. Still later he hid behind some packing cases in the office. General Joubert was not overly concerned about Churchill's escape.

He actually offered less cash reward (27shilling) for Churchill's recapture that the British officers were paying for a bottle of Scotch. "He is just 'n klein koerant-skrywertjie", (a little bit of a newspaperman) was Joubert's opinion of the man who would later become the British Prime Minister. Six days after his arrival at Clewer, he was hidden on a railway truck loaded with wool and bound for Mozambique. The train finally reached its destination two days later on 21 December. The British Consul was not immediately convinced of Churchill's identity. But after two days a cable reached Howard at Witbank. It read, "Goods arrived safely". Of the Boers, Churchill was to comment, "the individual Boer, mounted, in a suitable country, is worth four or five regular soldiers. The only way of treating them is to either get men equal in character and intelligence as riflemen, or failing that, huge masses of troops…., there is plenty of work here for a quarter of a million men and South Africa is well worth the cost in blood and money. Are the gentlemen of England all out fox hunting?

For the sake of our manhood, our devoted colonists and our dead soldiers, we must persevere with the war". Last updated 17 February, 2009 Winston Churchill, is captured by Boer forces during the Anglo | South African History Online South African History Online Home » Winston Churchill, is captured by Boer forces during the Anglo Winston Churchill, is captured by Boer forces during the Anglo Churchill Wednesday, 15 November 1899 Winston Churchill joined the British army in 1893 and developed a keen interest in war correspondence. Some of his early literary works were reports on various military campaigns. This led Churchill to work as a war correspondent for The Morning Post, in which he was to cover the occurrences of the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa. Soon after his arrival in South Africa, he accompanied a scouting expedition on an armored train. The train was ambushed by the Boers and on 15 November 1899, Churchill was captured and imprisoned in a Prisoner of War (POW) camp. He managed to escape, and with the assistance of an English mine manager, made his way to Delagoa Bay.

Hailed as a hero in England, Churchill then joined the army that marched on Mafikeng . On his return to England, he published a volume on his experiences during the war in South Africa. Later, Churchill turned his attention to politics, winning a seat in Parliament in the 1906 general election. He became the Chancellor of Exchequer (Cabinet Minister) in 1924 upon rejoining the Conservative Party. Churchill was outspoken on a number of issues, such as the danger of Germans re-armament after World War One. His warnings against Hitler were largely ignored, but at the outbreak of the Second World War, his foresight was acknowledged and he became the war-time Prime Minister. His speeches and military strategy were a great encouragement to the British. Churchill was said to have a very close relationship with South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts , who offered him great support during the Second World War. Winston Churchill ﻿ Background: This article is dated 2 February 1941. England is standing alone rather longer than the Nazis expected, and Goebbels vents his ire on Churchill.

The source: “Winston Churchill,” Die Zeit ohne Beispiel (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1941), pp. 380-384. Winston Churchill by Joseph Goebbels “There is only one way to break the resistance of the Boers: the most severe suppression. In other words, we must kill the parents to teach the children respect for us.” So wrote the correspondent of the English newspaper Morning Post during the Boer War. He was the same man who reported about an English punishment expedition to the Mamund Valley: “We went systematically from village to village, destroying the houses, ruining the wells, breaking the towers, felling the larger shade-giving trees, burning the harvest, and destroying the water reservoirs. . . After fourteen days the valley was a desert and our honor was satisfied.” According to Lady Asquith, the wife of the then English Prime Minister, this war reporter, who meanwhile had advanced to First Lord of the Admiralty, responded to the outbreak of the World War with cheerful laughter. During a speech in Dundee, a woman from the gallery yelled: “You’ve never told the truth.

The truth is a stranger to you.” He introduced the phase “terminological inexactitude” to the world, a discreet way of avoiding the rather crude word “lie.” He resorts regularly to the phrase when he is caught in an untruth. His swindles are world-renowned. The English battleship “Audacious” was sunk on 27 October 1914. Not only did he deny the fact, he even published falsified pictures of a sister ship of the “Audacious” with this caption: “The ‘Audacious’ returns to the fleet.” As early as 1900 he wrote in one of his books: “I then had no idea what a great and undoubtedly useful role deceit plays in the life of those nations that enjoy democratic freedom.” The reader will already have guessed whom we are speaking of. It is Mr. Winston Churchill, W.C. in short, currently the English prime minister and the first violin in the hellish concert that the whole demo-plutocratic world is playing against the Axis powers. It is not easy to give a character sketch of this man who lacks all character.

He is one of those political chameleons who can change his color as needed and his opinions a thousand times, and makes energetic use of these abilities. He lies not only out of necessity, but for the sheer pleasure of it, for it is part of him. As one leading English newspaper wrote after the bitter experiences of the World War, he is a political juggler who unfortunately always leads his country in the wrong direction. One must know Churchill if he is to understand England’s present policies and military leadership. They, like he, are wholly without direction or plan, an endless chain of actions and improvisations that now and again seem to prosper at first, but in the end regularly just miss success. Last spring, for example, Mr. Churchill had the crazy idea of occupying Norway. The Führer beat him to it by a nose, which has not stopped him from claiming a brilliant success. The German army threw the British troops out of Norway in a glorious victory. Mr.

Churchill nonetheless gave a speech to the survivors of the British destroyers “Hardy” and “Ellipse” in which he said: “You are the forefront of the army that we will use in the course of the summer to cleanse Norway of the dreadful filth of Nazi tyranny.” Everyone knows what actually happened. England had to be content to save the last remnants of its defeated divisions from Western Europe. It stopped talking about a renewed occupation of Norway. But that did not trouble Churchill. He had been through it during the World War with his disastrous Gallipoli invasion. He had walked through streams of English blood and become hard to the sentiments that might have affected anyone else after such a catastrophe. His cynicism about a war that affects millions of human lives is unparalleled. His autobiography has an interesting passage comparing the wars in India to a proper European war: “The suppression of the poor Indians could hardly be compared to a proper European war. It was like a paper chase rather than racing in a real derby. Well, one has to take what the age offers.” That is how Churchill loves and lives. One has to see a current photograph of his face to grasp the true depravity of plutocracy. This face has not a single good characteristic.

It is marked by cynicism. The ice-cold eyes are free of any emotion. This man strides over corpses to feed his blind and limitless personal egotism. The cigar butt in his mouth is the last sign of a lifestyle that has outlived its time. The English Labor leader Lansbury wrote about him in the Daily Herald on 12 July 1919: “He has no scruples other than concern for himself and no interests but those of the ruling class. In all his endeavors, he has always managed to find a corner for himself at the feeding trough of the state, and usually one of the best paid and most pleasant corners at that.” We have nothing to add to that. England will one day pay a heavy price for this man. When the great catastrophe breaks over the island kingdom, the British people will have him to thank. He has long been the spokesman for the plutocratic caste that wanted war to destroy Germany. He distinguishes himself from the men behind the scenes only through his obvious cynicism and his unscrupulous contempt for humankind. He wants war for war’s sake. War is an end in itself to him.

He wished it, pushed for it, and prepared for it out of a stupid, destructive drive. He is one of those characters of the political underworld who rise through chaos, who announce chaos, who cause chaos. For countless people the war brings vast suffering, for countless children hunger and disease, for countless mothers and women streams of tears. For him, it is no more than a big horse race that he wants to take part in. He now has what he wanted. England is in the middle of the gravest struggle in its history, from which it will be lucky to emerge with its mere existence. The big race has begun, and he who wanted it so much is the English prime minister. He will not be able to escape the crucial hour. When Chamberlain was his superior, he could duck ultimate responsibility. No longer. He must stand and fight. It does not surprise us that he is fighting to some extent. No one can escape his character, not even Mr. Churchill. He loses himself in feverish fantasies and confuses dreams without the shadow of truth with reality. In situations from which there is no escape he resorts to mystic-sounding phases.

His outbursts against the Reich and the Führer display ordinary gutter language that is usually rejected even by warring enemies. He spits out insults against the German people in his impotent rage. In all this we see him without any mask, a caricature of John Bull, a toothless bully, a monstrosity born of filth and fire that one must render harmless if the world is to have peace. England’s tragic fate is that it is led by him and has tied its fate to his. He was the one who persuaded Great Britain to ignore its historic opportunity and take the rapid path to its downfall. When the history of the fall of the island kingdom is one day written, the title of the critical chapter will have to be “Churchill.” It is always good to see a tyrannical system embodied in one man. That is the case here. That makes our attack easy. At least we know where we are. Churchill  that means war, as long as he is around. He never wanted anything else, and will never be able to want anything else. Well, now he has it, as does the nation that must fight and suffer.

He will fall with the war and through it, and on his grave will be the millions of curses of those he has seduced. That and only that is what England has deserved. [Page copyright © 1998 by Randall Bytwerk. No unauthorized reproduction. My e-mail address is available on the FAQ page .] Winston Churchill's great escape | Express Yourself | Comment | Daily Express VIDS Winston Churchill's great escape OUR image of Winston Churchill is of a bulldog-faced sober- suited man in his mid-60s, cigar clamped between his teeth, taking on Adolf Hitler. PUBLISHED: 00:00, Sat, Feb 4, 2012 A portrait of the young Winston in his British Army uniform [] But this week a hitherto unknown photograph of the wartime prime minister who led this country to victory from the brink of defeat and occupation, has cropped up for sale. In this sepia shot it is a young Winston, in his mid-20s, who stares back, astride a horse.

And this collector’s item, taken after his escape from prison during the Boer War, is a fascinating reminder that his early life was surely the most exciting – and dangerous – ever lived by a British PM. Churchill’s 20s were spent in a riot of polo, battles and bullets. He made sure he was in any conflict going. “There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result,” he once wrote. He certainly knew what he was talking about. He was never happier than when in a war zone with, as he put it, “the soft kiss” of bullets sucking in the air about his head. His early years are a story of near misses, extraordinary escapades and of “plugging” hostile natives with his trusty Mauser automatic. He saw action first in the guerilla war in Cuba (where got his fondness for cigars and siestas), India’s North- west frontier, the Sudan and in South Africa. All of the campaigns he fought in he wrote up as a war correspondent. The worse the danger, the better the story. He was handsomely paid and the money went some way to defraying the expenses of being a cavalry officer.

It was in India that Sir Bindon Blood led a punitive expedition against the fearsome Pashtuns in the Malakand Pass, in what is now Pakistan. Churchill heard of it and went along for the fun, commissioned by a newspaper. He had many adventures and the upshot was his first book, The Story Of The Malakand Field Force (1898), a massive hit with the public and proof of his uncanny abil- ity to place the reader in the middle of the dust-spurting action. In many ways he was lucky. There was no shortage of imperial punch- ups. Britain was determined to avenge the death of General Gordon in Sudan and sent General Kitchener to retake its capital Khartoum from Dervish rule. It led to the Battle of Omdur- man in 1898 and Churchill took part in the British cavalry charge on top of a polo pony. Despite having been the public schools fencing champion, as he rode into the enemy he sheathed his sword and drew his pistol. He shot the Dervish who was trying to bring down his pony, bagged another two or three, and rejoined his troop with a gratifyingly warm gun.

“Did you enjoy your- self?” he beamingly asked a sergeant. The man replied negatively to gales of laughter from the troop. As Corporal Jones of Dad’s Army observed of the Sudan, when it came to cold steel the natives did not like it up ’em. Reading Churchill’s reports today, white racial superiority is unquestioned and his language is in places embarrassing. In the 1972 film Young Winston (starring Simon Ward) he is shown saving the life of a wounded sepoy but the film tactfully omits Churchill’s description of the poor man as looking like “a tragic golliwog”. The era in which Churchill rode to glory seems about as distant as the battle of Agincourt. But his South African adventure was his finest hour in the field. The British government tried to gain control of the diamond and gold-rich Transvaal for commercial motives. The plan was to finish the war within a month. It took three years and the full strength of the Empire to defeatthe wiry peasant farm- ers who made up the Boer ranks. Churchill, back from Egypt, was desperate to get there before the war was over. He made it in time.

Once in South Africa, in late 1899 he was invited aboard an armoured train heading for Ladysmith. As he observed, such trains always got blown up or derailed. This one was no different. He saw it coming. Why was he so addicted to danger? Churchill claimed he was always after good copy (his contract for the Morning Post newspaper was worth a thumping £250 a month) but that is surely only part of it. It must also have had something to do with proving himself.IN THE eyes of his father Lord Randolph, he was a failure. He had been a flop at Harrow and failed twice to get into Sandhurst. His father made no effort to conceal his disappointment. Churchill could remember only three or four conversations he ever had with his father before his death (possibly from syphilis) in 1895 when Winston was 20. Whatever he was trying to prove, his instinct for self-promotion and disregard for self-preservation went hand in hand. His moment came when the armoured train he had boarded in South Africa was intercepted by 500 heavily armed Boers. A large rockwas placed on the rails.

The trucks but not the engine were derailed. Churchill leapt off, found the civilian driver wounded and about to flee. Assuring him that no man ever got hit twice in the same day, he supervised the driver and shunted the trucks out of the way, bullets zinging off the hot metal. Churchill persuaded those who were unwounded to walk in the shelter of the engine. When they lagged behind and surrendered, he found himself in a cutting and exposed to advancing Boers who were firing at him. He reached for his pistol but found it missing. With no other option remaining he too finally gave himself up. Once in prison in Pretoria he waited for his chance to escape. In a vicar’s hat, he scrambled over a 10ft fence and walked into town heading along the train line for Delagoa Bay 300 miles away. He jumped a goods train and hid under some coal sacks, eventually making it to a mining village. Desperate with thirst and hunger, Churchill knocked on the door and – with what was proving tobe his characteristic good fortune – was pulled inside by the only Englishman for miles around.

A bounty of £25 dead or alive was on his head (the poster still exists) so they hid Churchill in an unused mine. He was eventually packed in a train among bales of wool. He arrived looking dishevelled at the British consulate on the coast. Press accounts of his adventures on the train and his prison break had turned him into a hero in Britain. Churchill was among the first into Ladysmith. Once back in Pretoria he went straight to the prison camp and waved his hat, at which the prisoners, recognising his red hair, immediately overcame their guards and streamed out to greet him. Pretoria had been the crowning glory of Churchill’s adventures. He headed home as a celebrity. He had already made up his mind to quit the army and go into politics. A decade later when he was Home Secretary, Churchill paid some dues. He laboriously traced the reluctant engine driver andfireman who did his bidding and made sure they received from the King the highest civilian medal for gallantry. EVEN more remarkably, the Boer soldier to whom he surrendered after the train ambush was called Louis Botha.

Little did either young man know at the time that they would one day become good friends and prime ministers of their respective countries. In the trenches of the First World War Churchill was again in the thick of the battle. He knew all about death and as historian John Keegan pointed out, “the spectacle always touched him to the quick”. It would prove the perfect prepa- ration for the moment, much later in Winston Churchill’s life, when he fulfilled his destiny in 1940 and assumed his country’s leadership in its darkest hour. When Winston Churchill was our war correspondent When Winston Churchill was our war correspondent Sunday, 05 January 2014 | Pioneer | in Agenda 0 A glimpse of a picturesque and detailed reportage of war correspondent Churchill on his tumultous escape from the Boer war and the predicament of his fellow-soldiers trapped in the clutches of gunfire In a letter to the Morning Post dated Pretoria, November 19, Mr Winston Spencer Churchill tells the story of his capture.

After describing the run of the armoured train to Chieveley and the order telegraphed there for it to return, he says: We proceeded to obey and were about a mile and three-quarters from Frere when on rounding a corner we saw that a hill which cornmanded the line at a distance of 600 yards was occupied by the enemy. So after all there would be a fight, for we could not pass this point otherwise. The four sailors loaded their gun, the soldiers charged their magazines, and the train which was now in the reverse of the order in which it had started, moved slowly towards the hill. The Boers held their fire until the train reached that part of the track nearest to their position. Standing on a box in the rear armoured truck, I had an excellent view through my glasses. Suddenly three-wheeled things appeared on the crest and within a second a bright flash on light — like a heliograph, but much yellower — opened and shut ten or twelve times. Two much larger flashes followed and immediately over the rear truck of the train, a huge white ball of smoke sprang into being and tore out into a cone like a comet. Then came the explosions of the near guns and the nearer shell.

The iron sides of the truck tanged with a patter of bullets. There was a crash from the front of the train and half a dozen sharp reports. The Boers had opened fire at us at 600 yards with two large field guns, a Maxim firing small shells in a stream and from riflemen laying oh the ridge. I got down from my box into the cover of the armoured sides of the car without forming any clear thought. The train leapt forward, ran the gauntlet of the guns, which now filled the air with explosions, swung round the curve of the hill, ran down a steep gradient, and dashed into a huge stone which awaited it on the line at a convenient spot. To those who were on the rear truck there was only a great shock, a tremendous crash and a full stop. What happened to the trucks in front of the engine is more interesting. The first, which contained the materials and tools of the break-down gang, and the guard who was watching the line, was flung into the air and fell bottom upwards on the embankment.

The next, an armoured car crowded with the Durban Light Infantry was carried on twenty yards and thrown over on its side, scattering its occupants in a shower on the ground. The third wedged itself across the track, half on and half off the rails. The rest of the train kept to the metals. The Boer guns, swiftly changing their position, reopened from a distance of 1300 yards before anyone had got out of the state of exclamations. The tapping rifle fire spread along the hill sides until It encircled the wreckage on three sides, and a third field gun came into action from some high ground on the opposite side of the line. I clambered over the iron shield, and dropping to the ground, ran along the line to the front of the train. As I passed the engine, another shrapnel shell burst immediately, as it seemed, overhead, hurling its contents with a rasping rush through the air. The driver at once sprang out of the cab and ran to the shelter of the overturned trucks. His face was cut open by a splinter, and he complained in bitter futile indignation. He was a civilian.

Yet when this man, who certainly exhibited lively symptoms of terror, was told that if he continued to stay at his post he would be mentioned for distinguished gallantry in action he pulled himself together, wiped the blood off his face, climbed back into the cab of his engine, and thereafter daring the one-sided combat did his duty bravely and faithfully — so strong is the desire for honour and repute in the human breast. Efforts were now made to clear the line completely of the wrecked trucks so that the engines and the two cars which still remained on the rails might escape. Meanwhile, Captain Haldane endeavoured to keep down the enemy’s artillery fire by the musketry of the Infantry in the rear armoured truck. The breakdown gang and their tools were scattered to the winds and several had fled along the track of across the fields. Moreover, the enemy’s artillery fire was pitiless, continuous, and distracted. The affair had, however, to be carried through. The first thing to be done was to detach the truck half off the rails from the one completely so. To do this, the engine had to be moved to slacken the strain on the twisted couplings.

The next step was to drag the partly derailed truck backwards along the line until it was clear of the other wreckage and then to throw bodily off the line. This may seem very simple, but the dead weight of the iron truck half on the sleepers was enormous and the engine wheels skidded vainly several times before any hauling power was obtained. At last the truck was drawn sufficiently far back and volunteers were called for to overturn it from the side. It was very evident that these men would be exposed to considerable anger. Twenty were called for and there was an immediate response. But only nine including the major of volunteers, and four or five of the Dublin Fusiliers actually stepped out into the open. The attempt was nevertheless successful. Safety and success appeared in sight together but disappointment overtook them. The engine was about six inches wider than the tender and the corner of which footplate would not pass the corner of the newly overturned truck. It did not seem safe to push very hard lest the engine should be derailed. So time after time the engine moved back a yard or two and shoved further at the obstruction, and each time it moved a little. But soon it was evident that complications had set in.

The newly derailed truck jammed and the more the engine pushed, the greater became the block. Volunteers were again called on to assist; two of them I think were wounded but did their best. The attempt was a failure. Perseverance however is a virtue. If the trucks only jammed the tighter for the forward pushing, they might be loosened by puffing backwards. But now a new difficulty arose. The coupling chains of the engine would not reach by five or six inches those of the overturned truck. Search was now made for a spare link. By a solitary gleam of good luck one was found. The engine hauled at the wreckage, and before the chains parted, pulled it about a yard backwards. After this, the despatch tells us that the engine was not without risk and obstruction remained. It was seen that the hind trucks were disconnected and the risk of repassing that obstinate list of wreckage was too great. They must be left, and the engine moved away carrying the wounded and affording moving cover for the others. Seeing the engine escaping the Boers increased their fire and the troops, hitherto somewhat protected by the iron trucks, began to suffer. The major of volunteers fell shot through the thigh.

Here and there, men dropped on the ground, several screamed- and cried for help. About a quarter of the force was very soon killed or wounded. The shells which pursued the retreating scattered them all along the track, order and control vanished. A private soldier, who was wounded in direct disobedience of the positive orders that no surrender was to be made, took it on himself to wave a pocket handkerchief. The Boers immediately ceased firing, and with equal daring and humanity a dozen horsemen galloped from the hills into the scattered fugitives, and called loudly on them to surrender. Most of the soldiers then halted, gave up their arms, and became prisoners of war. Those further away from horsemen continued to run and were shot or hunted down in twos and threes and some made good their escape. For my part I found myself on the engine when the obstruction was at last passed and remained there jammed in the cab next to the man with the shattered arm. In this way, I travelled some 500 yards, and passed through the fugitives, noticing particularly a young officer, Lieutenant Frankland, who with a happy, confident smile on his face was endeavouring to rally his men.

My mind retains a momentary impression of the tall figures, full of animated, clad in dark, flapping clothes with slouch, storm-driven hats poising on their rifles hardly a hundred yards away. I turned and ran between the rails of the truck and the only thought I achieved was this, “Boer marksmanship.” Two bullets passed, both within a foot. One on either side. The earth sprang up beside me, and something touched my hand, but outside the cutting was a tiny depression. I crouched in this, struggling to get my wind. On the other side of the railway, a horseman galloped, shouting to me and waving his hand. He was scarcely forty yards off. With a rifle I could have killed him easily. I knew nothing of white flags and the bullets had made me savage. But I was a Press Correspondent without arms of any kind. There was a wire fence between me and the horseman. Should I continue to fly? I held up my hand and Mr Jorrocks’ foxes, cried “Capivi”.

Then I was herded with the other prisoners in a miserable group, an about the same time I noticed that my hand was bleeding, and it began to pour with the rain. Two days before I had written to an officer in high command at home, whose friendship I had the honour to enjoy; “There has been a great deal too much surrendering in this war and I hope people who do so will not be encouraged.” Fate had intervened yet, though her tone was full of irony she seemed to say as I think. Ruskin once said “It matters very little whether your judgments of your people are true or untrue and very much whether they are kind or unkind” and repeating that I will make an end. In Brief Lincoln Killed The Pioneer began its publication on January 1, 1865. Its first world news-story “broke” on April 15, when President Lincoln of the United States of America was assassinated. It announced the news on May 10, in a three-line message which appeared on the front page without headings: “Lincoln has been assassinated and died today.

Assassination of Seward was also attempted and he is not expected to live” Editorial comment on Lincoln’s assassination appeared in the same issue under the heading: The American coup d’état: “The telegraphic wire was never charged with a more astounding or less explicable message than when, on Sunday, it brought the assurance that Mr Lincoln’s life had been taken — Mr Seward’s attempted. For who is the criminal? People answer with confidence, “Some Southern fanatic”. As a would-be assassin does not wait for the vote of a senate, or ask the sanction of the Government, we must fear the answer true. But atrocious as the crime is, it is also what is politically much worse — an atrocious blunder.” Gandhi assassinated It was a black-bordered page, black banner and the blackest of news. “The Nation is Fatherless”, announced The Pioneer of January 31, 1948. “The Pioneer”, the report said: “is deeply grieved to announce that the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, is no more.

He died at the hands of an assassin on Friday evening at 5.40 at Birla House… Mahatma Gandhi had just climbed the platform and was returning the greetings of the people who had assembled to listen to his prayer address when the assassin, a young Maharashtrian named Nathuram Godse, fired three shots at point-blank range at him. He was immediately removed to Birla House where he died five minutes after...” Editorially, The Pioneer, wrote: “The weaponless warrior has died at the hands of an assassin... Barely 10 days ago when an unsuccessful attempt was made on his life by some votaries of the cult of bomb, the Mahatma declared firmly that nothing could deflect him from his ideals. Violent death held no terror for him... He faced it unflinchingly with a smile on his lips. Thus had fallen Jesus, thus fell Gandhi.” The Kipling Aroma Rudyard Kipling called The Pioneer “India’s greatest and most important paper”. He was so attached to the paper that when he had to finally leave it, Kipling felt deserted and sad.

“I felt curiously alone and unsponsored”, wrote he in a booklet titled Something of Myself. Kipling was introduced to The Pioneer by one of its proprietors Sir George Allen. As a journalist, he was not much of a success. He had little taste for mere routine work and was apt in neglecting tedious assignments that inevitably fell on the shoulders of the junior members. After the farewell accorded to Kipling by the staff, the manager of the paper told him, “Well, the best of luck, Kipling. But take my tip, try some other carrier. You will never make much of a success with your pen.” Yet the irony is that it is by pen alone that Kipling earned both name and fame and the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature. Kipling’s approach to journalism was rather unorthodox. He would spend much of his time in the bazaar talking to all and sundry or seek entertainment by talking to the native sepoys. Though The Pioneer got a ‘careless’ journalist, it gave to the world one of the finest men of letters of the century.

Question: For which newspaper did Winston Churchill work as a correspondent during the Boer war?
Answer: MORNING POST